By David Fierro
The unbeaten streak continued in a big way for the Greenwich High School boys soccer team on Oct. 29 and its latest victory was its most significant win of the season to date.
Their most recent triumph, a 1-0 win over Stamford before a large, enthusiastic crowd in the rain at New Canaan High School, gave the No. 1-seeded Cardinals the coveted FCIAC Tournament title.
With the championship game scoreless and the matchup hanging in the balance, senior Pietro Carvalho scored off a corner kick in the 73rd minute giving Greenwich a 1-0 lead – an advantage that would hold up, resulting in the conference tournament title.
“I’m immensely proud of them,” Greenwich coach Kurt Putnam said of his squad. “You have an undefeated FCIAC season, you’d like to think you can take it one step further and go and win the tournament. To do that in a manner that they did it – which was a really tough game against a really good opponent and coached well – it was impressive.”
On the game-winning goal off a set piece, Greenwich junior forward Francisco Luzuriaga sent his corner kick from the right side into the box. The ball found the foot of Carvalho, who was charging toward the goal and with one touch, he deposited a shot inside the left post, giving GHS a 1-0 lead with 6:31 remaining in the second half.
“Francisco put it right into the box the ball came flying right onto my feet, I didn’t have to do much work,” Carvalho said of his game-winner. “All I had to do was put it into a different direction and the ball went flying in.”
“We got a great ball in the box, a lovely ball, he played the conditions and Pietro used the inside of his foot to score,” Putnam proudly noted.
Following the goal, Greenwich kept the momentum the majority of the final five minutes of action, threatened to score again on another set piece and kept the ball on the Black Knights’ in this intense FCIAC final under a steady rainfall.
Carvalho point out that the Cardinals increased their performance level in the second half, after Stamford had several scoring chances in the opening half of this conference tournament final.
“We had a difficult time penetrating the back line and we just kept going and going and going and the goal finally came,” Carvalho said. “At halftime, we were honest with ourselves, we told ourselves they were putting in more work than we were. We came out the second half flying, we had to bring the game to them and that’s what we did. We were able to put away the game.”
The Cardinals received stellar, sound defensive play throughout and the FCIAC championship game’s MVP went to senior Finn Hugh-Jones who led the team’s impressive and effective group of defenders.
“I think he stood up really big, it could have gone to anyone in the back,” Putnam said of Hugh-Jones and Greenwich’s defensive effort. ‘Anything that was throw at them, they dealt with.”
Hugh-Jones, senior Juan Bruzzone, senior Patrick Miller and Marco Soares, also a senior, paced the defensive play for the Cardinals, who received another shutout in goal from senior goalie/captain Miguel Leon.
Greenwich has a record of 15-0-3 and of its 15 wins, 11 have come by a shutout for the Cardinals. In their last eight games, GHS had recorded seven shutouts. Leon kept the seventh-seeded Black Knights off the scoreboard, making three first half saves in the first half to keep the match scoreless.
“It feels great, last year we got knocked out by Stamford in the state semifinal and this was a hard-fought game, it was raining out and slippery and Stamford played a great game,” Leon said. “It feels great – amazing.”
In 2023, Greenwich dropped a 3-0 decision to Stamford in the semifinal-round of the CIAC Class LL Tournament. The Black Knights were then edged by Hall, 1-0, in the Class LL final.
One of Greenwich’s three ties this season is to Stamford. The Cardinals and Black Knights dueled to a 2-2 regular season draw on Oct. 1.
“They were physical and were not going to give us a lot of time,” Putnam said. ” I thought it was a fairly even game. If anything, we may have edged it in the final third. It was a pretty even game from the middle of the field.”
Coached by Mike Summa, Stamford has an overall record of 8-3-5.
“Going into this game, I know the kids on their team that played last year – we weren’t going to go 0-2 in the playoffs against them,” Greenwich senior captain Matthew Maloney said. “We got it done.”
Maloney helped ignite Greenwich’s offense, along with Lattuada, Luzuriaga and Carvalho.
“Our front three is incredibly fast – Santi, Fran on the wing – we just bring a level of energy it’s tough for teams to handle,” Maloney noted.
The victory gave Greenwich its first FCIAC Tournament championship since 2017. The Cardinals also won the FCIAC Tournament title in 2016 (a tie with Trumbull), 2013, 2007, 2005 (tie with New Canaan), 1999 (tie with Fairfield), 1998 (tie with Danbury) and 1995 (tie with Danbury).
“I’m immensely proud of them, to go 18 games unbeaten is tall order in the FCIAC,” Putnam said of his championship Cardinals.
Greenwich is right back in action Saturday morning as the CIAC Class LL Tournament gets underway. The Cards are seeded third and will host No. 30 Southington at Cardinal Stadium with a starting time of 10:30 a.m. Stamford is seeded 13th and will visit No. 20 Ridgefield on Friday at 3 p.m.
“States is definitely going to be difficult,” Carvalho said. “We’re going to continue to work, and we’re looking to remain undefeated. Hopefully, we can win states and bring it home.”
